


Diagnostics

by Harukami



Category: DRAMAtical Murder
Genre: Gen, does his grandpa have a name? no? he does now
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 17:36:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1096656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harukami/pseuds/Harukami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A robotics specialist decides not to dispose of a robot he's supposed to dispose of.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Diagnostics

Takumi checked the work orders for that day and sighed. "Another experimental disposal..." 

The experimental robot bodies were the worst to dispose of. The animals always looked a little too much like real animals, at least until they were opened up, and disposal involved a lot of literally taking them apart; making sure the repair nanites were blocked enough to determine which circuits were totally fried, which were still salvageable, sorting each component part appropriately and burning the ones that weren't salvageable to protect Toue's property. And the unusable ones were usually most of them. Most accidents or error just involved tweaking at a higher level to his job. By the time they came to him, usually they were determined unusable. Still, he had to do it even if it felt like mutilation more often than not. Toue didn't believe in wastefulness, and what was the point of having this level of skill with robotics without putting them to some employ? Even if it was this empty. Even if it was this unsatisfying. It wasn't as if he had a family at home to give his life meaning, so work it was.

He was expecting one of the animals again -- all-mates, he believed Toue was branding them -- because those had been the most recent development push, and wasn't expecting to open the door and find the naked body of a young man, who seemed deeply asleep.

Takumi's breath caught in a feeling like pain, and he let his feet carry himself over to the boy's side. He looked like barely more than a child, only just into the throes of adulthood -- twenty, maybe, at the outside, with a fresh and muscular body and smooth skin. The nudity was what really drove home that he was looking at a robot, not a real human being who had somehow fallen in here; usable collars and decoration never came down with the animal bodies, because why would you throw away perfectly good equipment? If he was naked, then he wasn't a human being. 

Slowly, Takumi slid an arm under the boy's knees, his shoulders, and tried to lift him, had to let him slide back onto the pile again as his back and legs let out an immediate complaint. He was heavy, which wasn't unexpected, and only served to prove Takumi's realization correct. Instead he had to get a pallet and load the robot onto that, rolling him on. His head hung off the edge a little -- not enough to drag on the floor, but enough to disturb Takumi, because his mouth parted slightly like a human's would, his eyelids slid open a little, giving Takumi a glimpse of pink eyes. He wasn't awake, of course -- was non-functional or, at least, in sleep mode -- but he looked too realistically like a confused, half-asleep young man. There were two small brown marks on his lower lip; it looked like it could be moles, but Takumi had seen spark burns on synthetic skin before and recognized the sign. It must have occurred when he'd broken.

He swallowed around the lump in his throat and brought the robot back to his work room. It was a more disturbing job than usual, but it was just a job. With effort, he levered the boy's body onto his table, arranged his limbs, and used a knife to peel back some of the synthetic skin behind his ear, correctly finding the jack -- the same as on some of the monkey all-mates -- and slid a cable in to boot him into diagnostic mode.

The boy's eyes opened. "Diagnostics," he said, in a light, clear voice, friendly and open, and Takumi felt the bottom drop out of his stomach.

***

The boy sat up, looking around the empty, metallic room. Takumi, straddling a chair backward and keeping his hand on the cable which would cause a hard reset if pulled, smiled at him uncertainly. The gas mask that he'd put on the body didn't deserve to cover up such a lovely face, but if Toue ever discovered his deception -- saw a boy who looked like the robot he'd ordered disposed of, or had any of his cameras in the city pick up that familiar face -- he felt that it was his life on the line. After he'd run full diagnostics with the intent to repair instead of simply isolate components, the abilities he'd discovered in there... it was the definition of knowing too much.

"You must be confused," Takumi said.

"Yes," the boy said, and lifted a hand to remove his mask.

"Don't do that!" Takumi said, voice sharp out of. "You must never do that!"

The hand fell away immediately, that body straightening in what seemed like alarm. He'd be obedient at least, then, Takumi thought, though he immediately felt guilty. 

"...I'm sorry..."

"It's all right," Takumi said, willing his heart to stop pounding so hard. "It's just very important. I'm sorry as well. I shouldn't have yelled. Do you know who you are?"

"R-2E-054," the boy said, uncertainly.

"That's who you were," Takumi said. "You must dispose of that."

"Dispose...?"

"Delete it -- no, get rid of it. We're going to live a different life now, you and I."

The boy's head slowly tilted. "You are not my master."

"No," Takumi said, fingers tightening on the cable a little. This is where things really were at risk; if he was designed to only obey Toue, and was only being obedient because he thought he was with Toue still, then everything would be ruined. But above all things, this boy mustn't obey Toue any more. "I'm not. I'm your grandfather."

"...my... grandfather...?" The confusion was plain in his voice.

"Yes. Don't think any more about being a machine. We're just a grandfather and his grandson, and this is our home."

The boy was silent for a long few moments, apparently examining this information through every angle. Takumi held his breath, waiting to see how he'd react.

But finally, he just folded his hands on the narrow cot's blankets and said, "Then, what am I?"

Takumi thought of the tone of the boy's voice when he had booted up in diagnostics mode, and said, "Clear. You're Clear."

"Clear?"

"That's your name, Clear."

Another few moments of silence, and then, obediently, the boy said, "Okay, Grandfather."

Takumi felt his knees go weak, released the cable, and came over to unhook it safely. Clear tilted his head obligingly, and as Takumi smoothed down the skin after, he wrapped his arms around the boy's shoulders. Things would be different now, he thought. He could make things be different now.

"Good boy, Clear," he said. "You're a good child."


End file.
